A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 9 April 1908, Page 5

A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY

THREE CHILDREN MURDERED MOTHER AND TWO OTHERS SERIOUSLY INJURED. MURDERER SUICIDES. TfBESS ASSOCIATION.] INVERCARGILL, April 8. A shocking tragedy was enacted in South Invercargill in the early morning. James Reed Baxter, seed merchant, attempted to murder his wife and family. Three children are dead and the wife and two others have been removed to the hospital in a critical condition.

Baxter committed suicide by exploding a detonator cap. The tragedy was evidently premeditated. The victims were attacked while asleep with an axe. Basil, aged nine, Roy, aged four, and Ronald, aged two, are dead. Phyllis, aged eleven, and a baby, aged, six weeks, and the mother, aged thirtyrseven, are in the hospital. • Hopes of their recovery, are slight. "The tragedy was discovered by a calleifHWioy getting no answer, communicated' J with $hfl .police. The 5 victims were found in'oed. •> ' Baxter was aged 43, and had a shop in town and carried on a nursery. There is no apparent motive for the crime. An inquest commenced at the house of the tragedy at four o'clock this afternoon before Mr W. A. Stout, J.P., .and a jury, of whom E. Webber, was foreman. Archibald McLean, chief missionary, in Invercargill, said: I reside next door on the right to the house occupied by the deceased, and I was intimately acquainted with him and his family. The two boys lying dead in the front room are Basil and Royf and the one in the back bedroom is Ronald. I heard no noise or disturbance last night. My bedrood faces • this house, and until 10.46 last night I was in a room precasely opposite the window of Mrs Baxter's bedroom. I noticed nothing unusual in Mr Baxter's manner lately. I know that he. has been ill of late, and heard that he had British cholera. I believe Baxter was down at the Bluff one day during his illness, and fell off a rock. I made the discovery between 10.45 and 11 this morning. I came to the front window, raised the blind, and saw the bodies of Basil and Roy. Prior to that I had noticed that there was no life or movement about the place. I saw that the blinds were down when I went outside in the morning. Hearing someone calling out, I went to the window. As I stated, I ran straight across to the South Invercargill police station, and telephoned for the police, who arrived in ten minutes, immediately followed by Dr Ewart and the ambulance. The police took possession of the house, and I saw Mrs Baxter, the baby, and Phyllis removed to the hospital. I then accompanied Sergeant Mathieson into the house. Entering by the front window, we made a hurrifd examination of the two bodies in the front room, and found life extinct. In the room immediately behind was Roy, who was dead in the bed, and Phyllis was on the floor alive but unconscious. She was lying on one elbow and one hand, with the other hand stretched out in front of her. We next entered Mrs Baxter's bedroom. As we went, she raised herself, turned towards the door, and said: "What is the matter?" She sank back unconscious. The baby was in a cot alongside, also unconscious. Having found that three of the inmates were alive, I hurried hack to the telephone and hurried up the ambulance and the doctor. We then continued our search. The door into the scullery, through which the bathroom was reached, was locked. We went outside and looked through the bathroom window. Seeing a body in the bath, we burst open the door, and found Baxter lying in the bath, which was full of water. His less from the knees were sticking over the head of the bath, as though deceased had been sitting on the end of the bath and had fallen backwards. Baxter was dead and was holding the gun (produced) in one hand, the muzzle pointing towards his feet. The gun contained a discharged cartridge in the breech. The stone-scraper (produced) was also found here. Inspector Mitchell arrived by this time with Constable Lennon, and the .four of us lifted the body on to the kitchen table, where it now lies. Everything -was done by the police with the utmost despatch. The injured ones were in the ambulance within 30 minutes after my terrible discovery.

The inquest was then adjourned till next Tuesday, at 7 p.m. in the Courthouse, but if Mrs Baxter is not then in a condition to give evidence the inquest will be further adjourned.